AN: Massive updates because of 3 years since I created this account! *3*
This is a sequel, which I wasn't even planning on doing, but the first part lacked something, didn't it? Let's see if I can fulfill it! ;D
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A Prince and a Pirate – Part 2
By: BonneyQ
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We're rascals, scoundrels, villains, and knaves
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho
We're devils and black sheep, really bad eggs
Drink up, me 'earties yo ho
Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me
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The war ended. After almost a decade of war, and it ended with a peace treaty and the marriage between the two enemy countries. Gray was also to be betrothed to some aristocrat in his near future to solidify even more the peace, but all he could think of was a certain pirate he had been sneaking in to see for the past two years.
Juvi Lockser, the Stormbringer was a known man because of piracy, except he was not a he. Stormbringer was a woman, Juvia, and if Gray had any doubts women could hold their own on the sea, he had none anymore.
Once the Prince had challenged Juvia for a sword fight inside the small room of the inn they met each other – she always found him whenever he won a battle –, and she was very skilled. Probably the people staying in the next room thought they were having the craziest and kinkiest kind of sex in there. Which they did; after almost getting into a tie, Gray finally held a knife onto her neck before throw it away, pull her into his arms and then have his victory treat.
Looking to the celebration party held into their castle, Gray looked at the women openly gawking at them but as he analyzed them, they all looked so boring. Where was the thrill? Where was the passion? Not in choosing a dress for the evening, that was sure.
He had danced three times with different women with many statuses, just to keep the peace. The Prince was ready to take another one to dance, but there was a commotion by the big saloon doors and he stopped before asking some blonde duchess to dance.
There were two shots behind him and then screaming. Gray reached for his sword, ready to fight whoever was brave enough to go there and make a ruckus – when he remembered that as a peace party, he was not allowed to have weapon – when he felt someone twist his arm from behind and then a knife being pressed on his throat.
"Now, now, Prince Green. Don't be silly and make some sudden moves." That voice. That smell. That teasing tone. That name.
Juvia.
No, she was not dressed as his Juvia, he guessed, that was Stormbringer, the pirate, not the silly woman whom he had met over and over again, and liked sweets and to listen to his heartbeat.
"What so you want?" He asked her while everyone else stayed away from both. From the corner of his eyes, he could see her men surrounding the guests.
"Just play along, please." She whispered and then, with a thicker voice, she spoken. "Good night, ladies and gentlemen. I am Juvi Lockser, Captain of The Raindrop, also known as Stormbringer." There were a few murmurs as some recognized the name. "I have your prince here with me and no harm will come to him, I just want to have a word with him in private."
"No!" The Queen, Ur, said loudly.
"Don't worry, Mother. I've dealt with him before." Gray said loudly enough to echo through the walls of the salon. "I will be fine."
"Now let's go to somewhere cozier, Prince." Juvi pulled Gray towards a door, that she assumed led to a room which they could talk. Once they were inside, the blue haired woman let him go, turned him around and kissed his lips.
"Juvia got here in time." She whispered. "Juvia was so worried." She kissed him again, but this time much deeper, and for a moment, the Prince forgot she had just high jacked a royal party. Once he remembered it, Gray pushed her away, confused.
"What the hell, Juvia? You… My mother…" The dark haired man was very much confused even though the pirate was kissing all over his face.
"Calm down. There's no real danger from my men. Gajeel's with your mother and sisters, so don't worry about them. He's telling them the same I will tell you now." She stopped her assault on him for a moment.
"Why did you…?"
"The waiters are not who they say they are! They are assassins, mercenaries who want to kill you and I couldn't let it happen." Juvia filled him in with what she knew, not even letting him talk a complete sentence.
"How do you know that?" Gray's heart skipped a beat with the news that someone was trying to kill him. That was not good at all.
"Overheard them a couple of hours ago." She told him, putting both hands on his face, caressing his cheek. "Juvia heard about the peace treaty, heard about the Party and we came to stay in town for a few days, so I could send you a message – there's something we need to talk about –; my men and I were eating when these guys came in. They said something about a prince, and gray. Royal family and execution. Juvia knew it was you and couldn't let it happen."
Gray frowned, what good killing him would make? He was just a Prince, a second son who would never succeed to the throne. Suddenly a thought occurred to him and it was not good.
"Oh, shit." He whispered.
"What?" Juvia asked, her hands left his cheeks as she frowned.
"It's not me who they want." Gray told her.
"Huh?" It was her turn to be confused.
"My brother: he's a prince, has gray hair and if they execute him, peace will be broken. We'll be at war again." The dark haired man told her quickly and when the words finally sank in Juvia's mind, she sighed in relief.
"Looks like I came to save the wrong Prince." She smirked.
He held her face and kissed her lips. "Thank you anyways. Now I need to save my brother."
Juvia was about to talk once again when they heard shots and screaming once again, knowing that it weren't her men, the Pirate offered him her sword: he was without any weapon. He looked at her in surprise. "How about you?"
She showed him the dagger and then a pistol she had tucked in her belt. "Juvia will be fine. Go ahead, I'll be right behind you."
Exiting the room, Gray found the source of the trouble: a big guy was battling against Gajeel, Juvia's second in command while the pirate tried to protect his mother and sisters. Knowing Lyon, he was probably already fighting somewhere else, but it looked like Gajeel could use help.
Jumping in the middle of the fight, the Prince held the mercenary so Gajeel could take a few breaths. Thankfully Juvia had let Gray practice with her sword a time or two before, so its weight was not too foreign.
"Gajeel!" Gray heard Juvia faintly, even though he was still crossing swords with his opponent. "Take the Queen and the Princesses to safety, we'll handle this one. It's time, my friend."
"Juvia… Captain." The tall man corrected himself. "You can't, it's too risky."
"It's an order."
"Damn you!" He yelled ad her, and then turned towards the other women. "You heard him, move, move, move! I need to come back as soon as I can. Where's the safest room you can get?"
Trusting Gajeel to lead his family towards safety and the guards and a few Pirates Juvia trusted fought the mercenaries, Gray continued to fight the man when Juvia joined him. She took a shot at the enemy and it made him grasp his arm, dodging the exact same time the blunette shot him.
A little confused with the loud noise, Gray didn't see the enemy go into the Pirate's direction. Even with his arm bleeding, the man was able to stab her. The prince saw the sword go through her.
Gray could see the redness spreading on the woman's gray vest, on her right side. Yelling in rage, the Prince grabbed the man by his vests, away from Juvia, who fell on the ground, trying to breathe.
He was so desperate, so full of anger, that the fight ended with Juvia's sword buried in the man's chest.
Kneeling by her side, Gray put a hand over her wound; he couldn't see if it was too deep, all he could see was the blood. "Juvia, Juvia." He whispered as the woman gasped for air. "Juvia, come on."
"Always liked you in your fancy clothes." She tried to catch her breath, but couldn't. "Juvia will miss that."
"Shut up." He told her, caressing her cheek; his eyes stung. "You are not dying, no."
"It's okay." The Pirate let a tear fall, her breathing was becoming slower. "This is how it's supposed to go."
"No, it's not. It is not." The Prince wanted to shake her, but didn't. Instead, he watched as her eyes fluttered close, but not before whispering one more sentence.
"Good bye, Gray-sama. Love you."
Her breathing stopped. Her heartbeat too.
Hugging her body, Gray let out a yell of pure pain as he held the fallen Pirate Stormbringer.
#
It had been a month since that day, a month since he saw Gajeel return to the room and see his Captain and friend with blood on her vests, and without moving in Gray's arms. The only witnesses to his pain were the guards who weren't fighting against the mercenaries anymore and Juvia's crewmembers, who had defeated their own enemies.
'I have to take her.' Gajeel told him. 'We need to go.'
'No'. Gray growled at him when the taller man tried to get Juvia's body away from him.
'There's no time, we have to get out of here. If she stays, you'll know what they're going to do with her for piracy.' And as a Prince, he did. It was not pretty and he was not letting anyone do it with her body. 'We need to leave before your guards remember that we are the good pirates.'
The Prince hesitated on letting her go, even if she was paler than he saw her, she was still his Juvi, Juvia, Stormbringer or whatever anyone wanted to call her. He saw Gajeel carefully take her body, her long blue hair falling, so beautifully – the Prince remembered playing with it after making love and always liked the shade and silkiness of it –, yet so tragically. He looked up to Gajeel 'When you bury her, tell me where.'
The now Captain of The Raindrop nodded and then yelled to the crew, leaving Gray sitting on the floor surrounded by either dead or contained enemies; feeling completely empty.
Gray was walking on the beach in front of the castle that afternoon, recalling the times when Juvia had dressed as a woman to spend the day with his without her crew know about her real gender, and then during the night, give him passionate kisses and touches.
The Prince saw someone not too far away from him, close to the water, with a basket and couldn't help but to remember that her favorite pastime while with him was to walk around the beach and catch seashells, putting them on baskets. Gray knew she was fierce, knew she was deadly, but when she squealed in happiness when found a seashell she never saw before, Juvia was only a girl spending time with her lover.
Only a few meters away from him, Gray saw that the person was a woman. She was against the setting sun, and his mind could only be playing tricks at him, because he could swear that the hair, which was flowing with the wind, was in the same shade as Juvia's hair once were.
He saw the woman, lean down, pick a seashell and then put it on a basket before looking his way.
If the Prince believed in ghosts, he would've cried in fear, but since he did not believe in them, he could only look at the woman that looked too much like Juvia. He was going insane.
"Hi, Gray-sama." The woman said with a smile that looked too much like Juvia's.
"I am going crazy." He whispered to himself without blinking, afraid that she could go away as soon as he did it. "You are dead."
"No, Juvia is not." She got closer to him, the hem of her white and blue dress was wet because of the seashell catching. The woman touched his face and he leaned on her touch. It seemed so real. That seemed like the same touch he had experienced with two years of a hidden relationship with the Pirate. The woman spoke again. "Sorry, Juvi needed to go down publically."
Deciding that he was not out of his mind – it was all too unreal, yet too perfect –, he asked. "You are alive… How?"
"The wound was severe, but it didn't hurt Juvia's lungs, but it made her bleed a lot. Besides that, she took a potion, so she could fake death for a couple of hours: it slows the heartbeat and breathing to a point when you can't tell whether the person is dead or alive. Juvia needed time to get stronger before getting to you. Juvia took it right after you left the room and started to take effect when that guy attacked her, otherwise Juvia would never get stabbed. It wasn't on the plans, but… It worked out either way."
He finally hugged her, letting her basket with seashells fall to the sand. When he did so, it was such a strong embrace, she was alive. After a month of pure hell, she was alive. His mouth covered hers and he had no idea of how long they just stayed at that place by the sea, just enjoying each other's company. Once they needed air, he whispered to her. "I should hate you for make me think you were dead. But right now I can't. You should've sent a note to me, anything."
"We needed to see if Juvi's death would be credible." She told him, kissing the Prince's cheek. As Gray didn't want to discuss it anymore, he just hugged the woman he thought would never see again. After a few moments, he frowned when felt something different and bigger about her body. Taking a step back, he finally stared at her whole body. Smiling, Juvia explained to him. "And well… thankfully neither the potion nor the bleeding hurt the baby."
"What?" The Prince couldn't wrap his mind around it: she was alive and… pregnant?
"This is why Juvia came to see you that day, Gray-sama." She told him. "And why Juvi needed to die: have a child at the sea is too dangerous. If anyone asks, I am Juvia Lockser, his twin sister, and completely innocent of piracy. There are many villagers that will testify to that, if it comes to it. We helped them two years ago and they were more than glad to 'remember' about Juvi and Juvia."
"And you came to fight bandits and mercenaries while you knew you were pregnant?" Gray scolded her. "Are you crazy? You could've really died!"
"But I didn't!" She told him, defensive, but he gave a laugh, wrapped his arms around her waist and spun around with her, and she laughed. "Gray-sama!"
"You are the most impossible woman I know." When the man put her on the sandy ground once more, he gave her a kiss. "Thank god you are the most impossible woman I know." He put his hands over her slightly distended stomach, rested his forehead on hers, smiling brightly. "You will always be impossible."
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"It is a big coincidence that you had a lover who happens to be the twin sister of the Pirate who saved us." The Queen, Ur, said when the young Prince told her about his intentions of marrying a common girl, who was the sister of the fallen pirate Stormbringer, who saved their lives a month before. And not only that; she was pregnant with his child and they had a hidden relationship for two years before that.
"Yeah… Strange things happen." Gray shrugged and his mother narrowed her dark eyes at him.
"Not stranger than she expecting your baby, and giving birth in five months, while four months ago you were fighting a battle at the other side of the country from where she resides in." The Queen said and Gray froze for a moment before answering his mother calmly.
"Very strange indeed."
"Is that what you want, kid?" The Queen asked and then lowered her voice, leaned a little so only he could hear her. "A former pirate who dressed as a man and faked her own death?"
"Yes, Mother." Gray smiled. "Sorry if it'll offend someone you were thinking about marrying me with."
"Don't worry about that." Ur waved him off. "We're at peace, my oldest son is to marry a princess to hold both countries together – he liked her, by the way, thank the good gods –, my daughter is getting smitten with a very handsome soldier from Alabasta, Meredy is too young for any of that, and you are getting married with a girl who has spirit and offering me a grandchild!" She hugged him. "I am very happy for you." The Queen hugged her son, and kissed his cheek. "I'll need to teach proper manners, though."
"Yes, you will." Gray laughed.
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Five Years Later
"I swear it: he gets it from you." Gray said, while paddling a small boat with his wife sitting across him, looking very intently at their goal: a small boy who, one more time, had ended up waving for them for help. The tide had risen before the boy returned to shore, and left him with no other way out besides waving for help, standing in a big rock.
Storm was so used to it that Juvia could see his blue hair, just like hers, moving with the wind while he sat peacefully, waiting to be rescued for the third time that month. Gray, most of the times, was the one who went to grab the kid, saying that that little brat was his to take care of. The Prince sulked about having to stop paperwork to go get him, but in the end he was just worried that Storm might get hurt. Juvia tagged along a few times.
"He lives in a castle by the sea, his secret godfather is a pirate, his mother was a pirate once and you fought bravely as a marine. Don't put the entire fault on Juvia's genes." The blue haired princess told him. She had her hair longer, the way he liked it, in a side braid, and was seating the way his mother taught her: like a proper lady. Her dress was in a dark blue tone and if anyone saw her, they would have no idea that she had a dagger hidden underneath it and could use it very well. All they could see was the sweet prince's wife, who blushed, talked in third person and stammered when Gray was too close.
They had no idea that that very same sweet princess was deadly when she wanted to.
"Well, you were a pirate longer." Gray told her and saw her take her brown eyes off of their son for a moment and smiled at him, resting her head on her hands. "What?"
"Juvia just hopes that this next one won't be such a troublemaker as Storm is. As much I love the little munchkin, Juvia doesn't think we can handle another firecracker."
Gray stopped the paddling for a moment before looking to her flat stomach, then to her face. "Are you sure?"
"Yes." She smiled and then Gray reached for her to give his wife a kiss; they have been trying for a second child since Storm was three, and they finally succeeded. The kiss was interrupted by a little boy's voice:
"Eeeeew! Mom, Dad! You came to rescue me, don't get all kissy and stuff, it's gross."
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AN: And it's done! At least we have a happy ending, even if it wasn't a good one, right? Haha.
I understand that Lilithkiss made a fanart about Gray leaving his throne for her, and I was going to write about it if this idea hadn't come first! Amazing job, by the way, Lilith and Shynii! I am looking forward to more of your work!
And yes, Alabasta from One Piece, totally used. Haha.
Thanks to: , Mafi, Agrias-chan, KHR1427, MrsGooglyBear, Guest, Armageddon Angel, mimi317, Mrs Murasaki-sama, Unknown335, Simlop, DandelionMoon, Yukistar, Sarapyon, DoomedToBeACrazyFanGirlForever, .lol, , mabello, Summer Eclair, otaku03, 16176, daughter-of-october, Trylan Aire, Maki-Zushi, animegirl115, superduperizee, casinocalavera, Guest, Esthellar, Medaka-chan, CapriciousKrego, kochidaandYamixTeaLover, who reviewed in the first part! You rock and I love you guys!
09/06/13 ~ BonneyQ